Chapter 40: Fusion

Although the Spiked Chelae's battle results were brilliant and none of the five armorers had achieved a single victory, the Sniper Armorer managed to instantly kill one Spiked Chela and severely injure another.

However, and David only understood this after sensing the Sniper Armorer, it could not launch a third strike. 

The strong Sniper attack and the reaction force was extremely terrifying.

Although many designers in Star Federation wanted to reduce the reaction force, it was proven that there would be a proportional reduction in offensive power with every bit of reduction in reaction force. 

The Sniper Armorers would rather suffer a strong reaction force than have a small portion of their sniping offensive power reduced. 

Sniper Armorers existed for the sake of one-shot kills, but their second option would be launching hard strikes. Causing light damage to the Bugs was never an option for Sniper Armorers.

David could feel the continuous, faint quivering of the Sniper Armorer's body. It only took three seconds for him to disperse most of the force that had been stored in his body.

That was a must-learn technique for Sniper Armorers, which could increase the speed of combat recovery. 

However, three seconds on the battlefield was enough to change plenty of things. A Spiked Chela released all six of its poisonous spikes and attacked the five armorers, skipping the shield. 

Another Spiked Chela launched a heavy strike on the other shield, the Defensive Armorer unable to deal with it. 

In that situation, the five armorers had to go all out and perform their best. They split into two groups and blocked the two Spiked Chelae separately.

However, the last uninjured Spiked Chela had used this opportunity to bypass the five armorers and charge towards the Sniper Armorer. 

Once the Spiked Chelae began to move, their speed was definitely not something an ordinary armorer could keep up with. Besides, none of the five armorers was a Detection Armorer, who were known for their incredible speed. 

By the time the Sniper Armorer could recover and resume the battle, three seconds had passed, and the Spiked Chela was less than 300 meters away from the boulder.

David could clearly see the disgusting fur on the Spiked Chelae through the T3 Sniper Assist Device. 

At this moment, the Sniper Armorer did not move at all. He kept his elongated sniper trained on the Spiked Chela that was approaching. The large amount of data reappeared, and another analysis happened again.

However, the analytical process was rather complicated this time. The Spiked Chelae continuously moved their bodies and used rocks to dodge the Sniper Armorer. 

The Bugs and the Star Federation had been at war for tens of thousands of years, the Bugs having fought the armorers for a long time, and vice versa. 

Although the Spiked Chelae were not too intelligent, their battle instincts made them understand that Sniper Armorers had to be killed.

The Spiked Chelae were fast approaching, now only 100 meters away from the Sniper Armorer. In just a few breaths, the Spiked Chelae would be able to get close to the Sniper Armorer. 

David was flustered but he could feel the calm beat of the Sniper Armorer's heart. It was as if the danger did not affect him at all. 

Just as the Spiked Chela was only 50 meters away from the Sniper Armorer, it began to retract all six of its poisonous stingers. At that moment, the white spot under its head finally became visible. 

The Sniper Armorer flicked his fingers and a massive force was fed back into the exoskeleton armor, as well as his body. At the same time, a Level 1 bullet flew into the white spot.

The Spiked Chela that had been attacked began trembling, its chest instantly exploding due to the blow. 

However, its strong vitality allowed it to continue advancing forward. With the inertia from before, it covered the short distance of 50 meters immediately. 

When it was right before the Sniper Armorer, the last portion of power in its body finally disappeared, and the body of the Spiked Chela slid a few meters across the ground, stopping in front of the boulder that the Sniper Armorer was on.

The Sniper Armorer did not even look at the Spiked Chela in front of him, as his target had changed to the two other Spiked Chelae on the distant battlefield.

David received another point of knowledge in his head. As long as there were comrades in front of a Sniper Armorer and there were no casualties, the Sniper Armorer would have to keep the sniper rifle in his hand as a deterrent.

He should not even think about retreating. The elongated sniper rifle was not suitable for use while moving. At the same time, the huge recoil couldn't be eliminated in a standing position. In other words, as soon as the Sniper Armorer stood up, he would lose his combat ability.

Doing reconnaissance and calculating the various data again would require some time. The time wasted would be enough for the dynamics on the battlefield to change drastically.

Of course, the armorers would try their best to protect the Sniper Armorer. 

The value of Sniper Armorers made the armorers wish that they could have a Sniper Armorer in their squad.

The battle ended soon enough. One Spiked Chelae had been killed outright by the Sniper Armorer, while another was heavily wounded and killed by the Warhammer Armorer, and the last one besieged by five armorers.

The visions David experienced did not end there. The battle scenes that followed were of ever-changing groups of armorers and Class 1 Bugs. 

There was even a battle with thirty armorers, most of whom surrounded a Class 2 Bug. It was a massacre and David felt the helplessness of the Sniper Armorer. 

In the end, several Sniper Armorers used Level 2 bullets at the same time and killed the Class 2 Bug, even though they were severely injured.

All thirty armorers died in that battle.

Afterwards, the bugs never appeared in the images again. The Sniper Armorer's battle targets were replaced with various ships and armorers. However, the Sniper Armorer had the same strong, long-range combat power.

Although the illusions did not display anything about the growth process of the Sniper Armorer other than the battle scenes, David now understood why Abbott was that psychotic. 

An excellent Sniper Armorer had his psyche completely destroyed after a brutal battle. Abbott became a mercenary and went around killing others for fun. Although he was just as calm as when he picked up a sniper rifle, he was only a Sniper Armorer when he did so. 

David didn't know what to think of Abbott, who had caused the deaths of nearly a hundred people. When he snapped out of the visions, he couldn't help but open up the information about Abbott again.

He thought that perhaps Abbott previously had a different name, since his previous experience was missing from the information provided. Perhaps Abbott did not want to recall that experience and his previous name. 

Closing the file of information in his hands, David's body trembled lightly, which was exactly a Sniper Armorer's unloading technique.

Surprisingly, David accomplished it with ease. Having mastered the Intermediate-level Bodywork and the Intermediate-level Warhammer Mastery, he found it easy enough to master Beginner-level combat abilities.

At this moment, he was greatly interested in Maron's invitation to go to the shooting range. He decided he would remind Maron about it when he had time to do so.

While he was thinking, he suddenly received a reminder on his identity bracelet. 

He opened it to see that it was a message from the program he had implanted in Strat Hotel's security optical computer. 

He had set up some important alerts in the security optical computer, such as Mr. Strat's daily schedule, information related to Trainer Jeremy, and so on.

This time, it was an alert for a message that Trainer Jeremy had sent to Mr. Strat, which seemed to be rather secretive, as it was specifically sent to the security optical computer of the Strat Hotel via Skynet.

In fact, that was the safest method possible. Identity bracelets had identity positioning functions. If one's identity was locked by the authorities, all messages from the identity bracelet would be blocked.

Trainer Jeremy used that method in order to ensure 100% safety. However, it did not occur to him that the security optical computer of the Strat Hotel had already been hacked by David.

Sending a message through that channel was equivalent to blatantly informing David of the message, which Trainor Jeremy wouldn't be too happy about.

The message was rather simple. It read, "All operations against the target have been suspended and will not be launched for a short period of time."

Others might find the ambiguous message to be strange and confusing, but David instantly understood what it meant. 

It seemed that Galen's appearance and the fact that Leeson Security was the subject of an investigation caused the mastermind to be wary, especially since both occurred at the same time. They were afraid that Galen would find out more, so they decided to stop the operation against David while they were still safe.

David felt relieved after reading the message. He needed time to grow, after all.

The mastermind continuously targeting him, and Mr. Strat's existence in particular, made him suspect his stepmother Bersha, which was a source of disbelief for him. 

Galen's timely appearance and his display of great status and power had made the mastermind fearful. David had achieved rapid growth and progress under Galen's guidance.